1/3/2004 02:04:31 PM|||Amy|||Last night I went over to my brother's place to bake a couple of pies for my father. Our oven broke a while back, thus rendering all baking nigh impossible. So, I'm at my brother's apartment which is beautiful and clean and very homey, when all of a sudden the people upstairs started rearranging furniture or preparing the Ark or something. It reminded me of one of the reasons why I dislike apartment living. At home, whenever I hear a car door slam or footsteps outside, I jump. It goes back to the days when I would hear my parents coming home and realize that I hadn't even started scrubbing the kitchen floor or the baseboards or the toilet with a miniature toothbrush and I had better get started because I had about 3 seconds before the screaming began.

Anyway, Bear fell asleep and instead of trying to carry him to the car, I decided that we would stay there. I didn't sleep well. All those car doors slamming and footsteps and the storm troopers taking possesion of the colony upstairs. But, I did get to watch a movie without any interruptions, except for the one time when my father called to see if I had perhaps run away for good this time. I got the damn pies baked, and then in the morning Bear and I gathered ourselves together, called my brother, who is returning tonight from his holidays in Georgia and North Carolina, to apologize for Bear peeing on his leather sofa (strange place, strange potty), and came home. Oh, the nightmares that build and multiply whenever I dare to leave the house for anything other than work. When I came home, things were a little bit ugly. Winston and Monkey had been left in the care of someone other than me, and that apparently hadn't gone well. This happens, though, whenever I leave the house for non-University related reasons. I suppose I should be okay with this since I am at least allowed to earn a paycheck without having to suffer daily recriminations for my and my creditor's selfishness in our collective pursuit to pay my bills.|||107316027107821985|||Last Night